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Life in the field of Josep Bartolí

Date
1939 - 1944
Archive
Municipal Archive of Barcelona
Document type
Produccions Artístiques
Reference code
CAT-AHCB-AHCB3-235-24928
Link to the online document
Description

Josep Bartolí (Barcelona 1910-New York 1995) was a Catalan painter who acquired great fame as a draftsman and set designer for films in the United States. He was part of the 10th Street group along with Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, among others.
Between 1933 and 1936 he had been a contributor to Barcelona newspapers such as La Veu de Catalunya, Papitu or L’Esquella de la Torratxa, but the Civil War forced him into exile. In 1939 he crossed the border and went to France, where he was interned in different concentration camps. After several attempts, he managed to escape and flee to Morocco and Mexico and then reach the United States.
The present drawing is an example of his Campos de Concentración series, in which he reflects the cruelty of life in these spaces of seclusion and the vexations to which the inmates were subjected.